Charlie Wilson

Funk music tends to have a lot of figurative bombs getting dropped. Among the genre's most famous detonations was the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," with its smeared synth bass groove, screaming-whistle sounds and booming timpani rolls, it's a smooth thermonuclear sound.

Charlie Wilson was the lead singer in the Gap Band. He's gone on to make loads of great music, increasing the suave factor, and reducing the earth-clearing blasts by a few notches. These days, Wilson, the son of a minister, is about uplift, positivity and love. He's had his share of troubles with alcohol and drugs, and a bout with cancer, but his second act — involving collaborations with...

Related "Charlie Wilson" Articles

Funk music tends to have a lot of figurative bombs getting dropped. Among the genre's most famous detonations was the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," with its smeared synth bass groove, screaming-whistle sounds and booming timpani...

Between 1972 and 2010, Charlie Wilson was the lead singer for the Gap Band, the hit-making R&B collective behind party anthems like "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" and "Early in the...

What exactly happened on dance floors in the '70s?
That's a question many musicians and club-goers could probably ask themselves about one of music's most decadent (and unfairly maligned) decades. But go ask Daft Punk, a newly re-formed Chic, and now...

Charlie Wilson is proof that age is nothing but a number, and R&B is here to stay. At 62, the former Gap Band frontman performed to a packed Nokia Theater on Wednesday and Thursday night as part of the Los Angeles leg of his Forever Charlie Tour...

Daft Punk took the top honors at the 56th Grammy Awards on Sunday when they took the awards for record of the year for "Get Lucky," with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, and album of the year for "Random Access Memories."...

Jay Z led the pack in the race for Grammy Awards earning nine nominations including one for Rap Album and two nominations in the Rap/Sung Collaboration category. Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Pharrell and Justin Timberlake also scored...

Amid the long, meandering BET Awards telecast on Sunday night were a number of fantastic performances. The Charlie Wilson celebration, richly deserved, was not only a perfectly executed tribute but a stellar display in its own right. How could it not...

Given that the inaugural B.E.T. Experience just wrapped up in downtown Los Angeles, it’s fitting that two young locals - Kendrick Lamar and Miguel - were two of the breakout winners at the network’s annual awards show.
The Compton-born rapper Lamar...

Tom Hanks, not surprisingly, has never been in a fight. The two-time Oscar-winner and notorious nice guy said, “Gentleman don’t do such things,” when asked about his fisticuffs history at a downtown Chicago hotel Friday.But in the unlikely scenario that...